Chelsea and Man City 2013-14 transfer window spending (estimated)

Mourinho has played down Chelsea's title chances in recent weeks and on Saturday, he described City as "a Jaguar" and said they are favourites for the title. He added that his concern was the gap between Chelsea and fifth place.

Former Malaga boss Pellegrini, who faced the Portuguese when Mourinho was coach of Real Madrid, questioned Mourinho's view and drew reference to Chelsea's spending over the last decade, since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club.

The Chilean said last week: "Maybe it is a small horse if the manager thinks like that.

"It can be a little horse but very rich. This is the team that spends most money in the last 10 years, it is the team that spends most money this year and the team that spends the most money in the transfer window, so [it is a] little bit rich."

Chelsea's net spend during the previous two summer and winter transfer windows was approximately £49m.

In January, they bought Nemanja Matic, Mohamed Salah and a player Mourinho did not mention, Kurt Zouma (£12m), for a total of £44m. But they made £55m from the sales of Juan Mata and Kevin de Bruyne.

City, on the other hand, did not change their squad during the winter window, but had a net spend of about £80m last summer.